Dynamic aggregation and display of contextually relevant content

ABSTRACT

A web-based system scans content for specific terms, and transforms occurrences of the terms into hypertext links. Each hypertext link provides access to a dynamically generated web page which contains aggregated content related to the respective term. The aggregated content may be gathered through a distributed keyword search of various content sources, including web sites and other sources on a wide area network. The results of the keyword search are aggregated into a single page or document, preferably with filtering to remove page elements not well suited for display on a mobile device. Occurrences of specific terms on this dynamically generated page may similarly be transformed into links, such that the user can browse content from various sources within a confined environment.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Appl. No.60/942,190, filed Jun. 5, 2007, the disclosure of which is herebyincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This disclosure relates to the dynamic aggregation and display ofcontent. The disclosure also relates to the display of aggregatedcontent on handheld devices.

2. Description of the Related Art

As the use of computer networks such as the Internet continues to grow,it becomes a primary source of information for many users. Deviceshaving a smaller form-factor such as smart phones, Personal DigitalAssistants (PDAs), and ultra-light notebook computers are emerging asprimary tools to access content. However, because these devicestypically have limited pixel areas, much content remains inaccessible tothese types of devices, as many websites are optimized for highresolution screens. Although some websites are made available to smallform-factor devices using “mobile” versions specifically designed forlimited pixel area, most websites do not provide this service.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

One embodiment of the invention is a web-based system that scans contentfor specific terms, and transforms occurrences of the terms intohypertext links. Each hypertext link provides access to a dynamicallygenerated web page which contains aggregated content related to therespective term. The aggregated content may be gathered through adistributed keyword search of various content sources, including websites and other sources on a wide area network. The results of thekeyword search are aggregated into a single page or document, preferablywith filtering to remove page elements not well suited for display on amobile device. Occurrences of specific terms on this dynamicallygenerated page may similarly be transformed into links, such that theuser can browse content from various sources within a confinedenvironment. The terms that are capable of being transformed into linksare preferably maintained in a taxonomy that associates terms withspecific topics and subjects. The system preferably uses the taxonomy tocontrol the searching process such that the dynamically generated pagestend to be highly relevant to topic or subject the user is readingabout.

In another embodiment, a method of dynamically generating web pages isprovided. The method includes automatically determining that a firstobject (e.g., a term) displayable on a first web page matches a firstpredefined object in a set of objects of interest (e.g., a taxonomy ofterms). In response, the first object is automatically established as afirst hypertext link on the first web page. In response to selection ofthe first hyperlink by the user, a second web page is output for displayto the user. The second web page is generated by at least accessingresults of a search for web-accessible content based on the firstpredefined object, aggregating portions of one or more results of thesearch into the second web page, and additionally determining that asecond object displayable on the second web page matches a secondpredefined object in a set of objects of interest. In response to theadditionally determining, the second object is established as a secondhypertext link on the second web page. The invention also comprises acomputer system, and executable code stored in computer storage, thatembody the foregoing method.

In another embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprisesgenerating a first web page containing textual content that isresponsive to a request from a user computing device, wherein generatingthe first web page comprises scanning the textual content for each of aplurality of terms, and in response to detecting an occurrence of afirst term of said plurality of terms, transforming the occurrence ofthe first term into a first hyperlink. The method also includestransmitting the first web page to the user computing device for displayto a user and generating a second web page which is responsive to thefirst hyperlink, wherein generating the second web page comprises usingthe first term to execute a keyword search, aggregating a plurality ofcontent items located by the keyword search, scanning the plurality ofcontent items for occurrences of individual terms of said plurality ofterms, and transforming occurrences of individual terms of saidplurality of terms into respective hyperlinks. The second web page isthen transmitted to the user computing device in response to userselection of the first hyperlink on the first web page. The inventionalso comprises a computer system, and executable code stored in computerstorage, that embody the foregoing method.

In still another embodiment, a system for providing dynamic generationof network content is provided. The system includes a first moduleconfigured to determine that a term in a web page is present in adatabase of terms, convert the term into a hypertext link in the webpage, receive a user request to access the hypertext link, and generatea search request based on the hypertext link. The system furtherincludes a second module configured to receive the generated searchrequest, determine a plurality of external sources to receive the searchrequest, send the search request to each of the external sources inparallel. The second module may be configured to receive a response tothe search request from each of the external sources, aggregate thereceived responses into a single web page, and send the single web pageto the first module. The first module may be further configured toextract predefined types of content elements from said web content tofacilitate display of the single web page on a screen of a handhelddevice.

In still another embodiment, a computer-implemented method of generatinga web page is provided. The method includes determining that a termappearing in a first web page is present in a record of a database tablestoring a plurality terms, wherein the record includes metadata aboutthe term, the metadata including a plurality of words, each of theplurality of words being related to one of a plurality of possiblemeaning for the term. The method further includes creating a querystring based on the term and scanning the first web page for an instanceof any of the plurality to words. At least one of the plurality of wordsis located in the first web page, and the query string is modified basedon the at least one located word. A second web page is then generatedbased on the modified query string, wherein generating the second webpage comprises using the modified query string to execute a keywordsearch, and aggregating a plurality of content items located by thekeyword search.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1D are block and system diagrams illustrating various aspectsof a system which dynamically generates content on a computer networkaccording to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating how the taxonomy data from FIG. 1may be indexed.

FIG. 3 is an example of a menu for receiving user requests fordynamically generated content related to groups in accordance with oneor more embodiments.

FIG. 4 is an example of content that may be presented when a userselects a channel associated with a group.

FIG. 5A is an example of a page which is dynamically generated basedupon content shown in FIG. 5B.

FIG. 5B is the page from FIG. 5A in its original unmodified format.

FIG. 6 is an example of dynamically generated content which is createdbased on a user selection of a generated taxonomy link.

FIG. 7 is a chart showing the URL strings for various buttons and entrypoints to a self-contained browsing experience.

FIG. 8A is an example of how terms related to certain groups cangenerate different types of target pages.

FIGS. 8B and 8C are examples of how users can request that terms beadded to the taxonomy database from FIG. 1B

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a dynamic page generation process according toone or more aspects.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing how images from external content may bemodified for display in the dynamically generated web pages.

FIG. 11A is a flowchart of a process for inserting links intodynamically generated content based on the presence of certain termswithin the content.

FIG. 11B is a flowchart of a process for using term metadata to refine asearch based on the context of the term in page content.

FIG. 11C is an example of a term record.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a page filtering process which removes certainelements from dynamically generated pages in accordance with certainembodiments.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of the process by which the system generates apage in response to a selection of a taxonomic hyperlink.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a process that may be used to identifyinaccuracies or errors in the taxonomy.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of an automated process for adding terms to thetaxonomy database.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

Various embodiments are disclosed of a system that provides dynamic pagegeneration services. These services provide for an improved browsingexperience on a network-enabled device, without requiring users toinstall any browser plug-in or other special software on their computingdevices. Using the dynamic page generation services, a user is able tofollow dynamically generated links related to objects or topics ofinterest without requiring extensive typing of search terms or URLdestinations.

In certain embodiments, the system, which may be exposed to users as awebsite or an area of a website, dynamically generates its own web ofcontent by aggregating content from existing sources of data, such asthe World Wide Web and/or proprietary databases or feeds, such as RSS orAtom feeds for example. Each new page is preferably dynamicallygenerated by performing a search on a hypertext-linked, identified termfrom a prior page, and by aggregating some or all of the search resultsinto a single generated page. (The word “term,” as used herein, isintended to encompass both text strings without spaces such as“baseball”, and text strings with spaces, such as “NBA scores” or“presidential election.”)

For example, if the user selects the term “2008 Olympics” while viewinga document, the system may search for documents (news articles, webpages, etc.) related to the 2008 Olympics, and aggregate these documentsinto a single web page/document for display on the user's device. Asdiscussed below, this web page may be optimized for display on ahandheld computing device. Unlike a search result page generated by aconventional Internet search engine, the dynamically generated page mayinclude most or all of the textual content of the documents (or mosthighly ranked documents) returned by the search.

Specific terms appearing in the aggregated content are preferablytransformed by the system into hyperlinks that may be selected by theuser to view additional pages. These additional pages may be generatedby the system using the same content searching and aggregation process.The terms that are capable of being transformed into hyperlinks by thesystem are preferably maintained in a taxonomy that associates specificterms with specific subjects or topics, as described below. Although thecontent that is aggregated into the dynamically generated documents maycome from a variety of different web sites and Internet domains, thesystem enables the user to view the content as part of a single web siteand using a consistent user interface.

By transforming occurrences of specific terms into hyperlinks, thesystem provides a clean user interface which allows users to navigateprimarily by clicking on hyperlinks, thereby creating a click-centric(as opposed to keyboard-centric), browsing experience. This type ofbrowsing experience may be especially advantageous when the clientdevice has limited keyboard functionality. However, the disclosed systemand methods may also be used to enhance the browsing experience of PCusers, and users of other computers having a full keyboard.

Further embodiments provide dynamic generation of page content which isparticularly suited for small screen and/or limited pixel area devicessuch as smart phones, PDAs, handheld computers and the like. In theseembodiments, the original page content retrieved in response to clickinga hypertext link is reformatted to provide improved display on thesmaller devices. The reformatting process can remove page content thatis not well suited for display on the client device.

In some embodiments, the terms that are capable of being transformedinto hyperlinks are organized into a taxonomy of topics. The system usesthis taxonomy to map specific occurrences of the terms to specifictopics, optionally based on a contextual analysis of how the term isbeing used. Thus, for example, different occurrences of the same termmay be mapped to different topics of subject. For example, the systemmay use the taxonomy to assess whether an occurrence of the term“Eagles” refers to the football team, the rock band, or the bird itself.The placement of the term within the taxonomy can be leveraged in thesearch process to produce more meaningful results. For example, if thecontext surrounding the term “Eagles” includes references to music, thesystem may respond to user selection of the highlighted term bygenerating and returning a page with aggregated content related to theEagles band. The system may do this by, for example, executing a keywordsearch in which the term Eagles is combined with music-related terms,and/or by limiting the scope of the search to one or more particulardatabases or web sites, such as a music database or site.

The taxonomy may also specify related terms, including synonyms, slangand abbreviations, that are used by the system to widen the scope of thesearch. For instance, the taxonomic entry for “Eagles” in the musiccategory may include “Glenn Frey” (the name of an Eagles band member) asa related term. The system may use this information to include withinthe scope of its search any documents that include “Glenn Frey,”regardless of whether these documents include “Eagles.”

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network environment 100 suitable forimplementation of a various components of a dynamic content generationsystem 101. The network environment may include a wide area network 102.The wide area network 102 may be or include the Internet, or it may besome other network such as a television system network, a wirelessnetwork, a central asset repository, or the like. The wide area network102 typically includes many websites which provide access to contentsuch as news stories, blogs, video, audio data, images, and other typesof data. The dynamic content generation system 101 may be configured toaccess the WAN 102 to retrieve page content for processing and displayto a user via a computing device 128. In one embodiment, the onlysoftware needed on the user computing devices 128 is an ordinary webbrowser capable of loading and displaying HTML-based web pages.

Also part of the network environment 100 may be proprietary content 104.The proprietary content 104 may be part of the WAN 102, or it may bepart of a local network which includes the dynamic content generationsystem 101. Collectively, the WAN 102 and the proprietary content 104may provide access to various data sources through web feeds, XMLgateways, RSS feeds, or some other content access mechanism.

The content generation system 101 may include various modules. Forexample, the system 101 may include a content gateway 106. The contentgateway 106 typically is used to provide a search platform whichcollects data from the WAN 102 and the proprietary content 104 andindexes the collected data to allow fast searches of the collected data.The content gateway 106 may include a search engine 107 that uses asearch index 109 to conduct keyword searches. The search index 109 iscontinuously or periodically updated by a content indexer 111 thatanalyzes crawled web pages and other content sources. The contentgateway 106 may further include various sub-modules which are describedin additional detail below in connection with FIG. 1D.

The dynamic content generation system 101 may further include apublishing module 112. The publishing module 112 receives the contentfrom content gateway 106 and processes the content for delivery to thecomputing devices 128. The publishing module 112 includes varioussub-modules which may assist in the processing of the received content.One sub-module of the publishing module is a filtering module 114. Thefiltering module 114 may configured to identify certain content elementswithin the content received from the content gateway 106 and to removethose content elements so they are not sent to the computing devices128. In some embodiments, the filtering module 114 may be configured toremove page elements that are not likely to perform well or at all on asmall form-factor device such as a mobile phone or handheld computer128. The filtering module 114 may include filters which remove elementssuch as IFRAMES, EMBED objects, FLASH content, rich mediaadvertisements, HTML or XML tables, JavaScript, HTML forms, DHTML, AJAX,excessive whitespace, and/or external page links. Other filters performview enhancing functions, such as real-time dynamic resizing of imagesto ensure that they are completely visible on-screen without scrolling,and do not significantly impact page load time. The filtering may helpto maximize the page-loading performance of the content, as well preventbrowser access to unfiltered destinations which are not likely to besupported on the device.

The publishing module 112 may further include a page enhancement module116. The page enhancement module 116 generally is used to enhance thecontent delivered to the system 101 via the content gateway 106 prior toits delivery to the computing devices 128. In some embodiments, theenhancement module 116 is configured to analyze the content of the pagedata and convert certain recognized terms into highlighted and/orhypertext links which may be selected by a user. When the user selects ahighlighted term, the system 101 is configured to search the syndicateddata collected by the feed module 106 for content related to the searchterm. The terms which are converted into hyperlinked text may be derivedfrom a taxonomy module 122 which classifies and stores terms which maybe of interest to users—a process which will be described in furtherdetail below. The publishing platform 112 may further include a HTTPservice 118. The HTTP service 118 may take the form of a traditional webserver which receives HTTP requests from web browsing software stored oncomputing devices 128 and in response to those requests delivers therequested web pages to the computing devices.

In some embodiments, the publishing module 112 may also include adocument cache 124. The cache 124 may be used to store pages that havebeen recently requested by the clients 128. Typically, a page generatedby the publishing module 112 in response to a request from a clientcomputing device 128 may be cached for a limited period of time. If thesame page data is requested again while it is stored in the cache, thepublishing module can quickly deliver the content from the cache ratherthan re-generating the page. This page caching allows the system 101 todeliver the page while preserving system resources. In addition, when apage is generated by the publishing module 112 and displayed to a uservia the HTTP service 118, the publishing module may be configured topreemptively generate and cache all pages which are linked to in thedisplayed page content but do not already reside in the cache 124. Thiscaching may be done in advance of the user's selection of any link inthe page in order to improve performance. The caching of the generateddocuments, however, is not essential to the invention.

FIG. 1B is a more detailed view of an example hardware configuration forthe taxonomy module 122. The taxonomy used to create hyperlinked textwithin the publishing platform 112 is stored within a database 134 whichis part of the taxonomy module 122. The database 134 may be a relationaldatabase which includes a database schema suitable for classifying dataand content in a manner which is discussed in additional detail below.The database 134 may be modified and supplemented via SQL query callssent to it by a web application server 132. The web application server132 may include a web application which allows users (such as taxonomyeditors and/or administrators, for example) to update and manage thetaxonomy database 134 via an administrative module which is provided viaa web browser stored on a client computer 136. The administrative modulemay be accessible via a web site associated with the web applicationserver 132, and may be secured to provide selective access to the usersauthorized to modify the taxonomy database 134.

With reference to FIG. 1C, an example of portions of a database schemafor the taxonomy database 134 is provided. The database schema includesvarious data tables such as, for example, a GROUPS table 152. The GROUPStable 152 includes a GROUP_ID field which stores a unique identifier foreach group, and a GROUP_NAME field which provides the name of the groupassociated with GROUP_ID. Each group stored in the GROUPS table 152 maybe related to certain top level topics or categories of data.

Each group stored in the GROUPS table 152 may have one or more subjectsassociated with it. These subjects may be stored in a SUBJECTS table154. The SUBJECTS table 154 may include a data field SUBJECT_ID whichstores a unique identifier for a subject record, and the SUBJECT_NAMEassociated therewith. Each subject record also includes a GROUP_ID fieldwhich stores data that indicates the group with which it is associated.

The subjects stored in the SUBJECTS table 154 may also be interrelatedin a hierarchical form. For example, the “NEWS” group may have a“INTERNATIONAL NEWS” subject associated with it. The “INTERNATIONALNEWS” subject may be broken down into more defined subjects such as“SOUTH AMERICA NEWS” or “AFRICA NEWS” for example. These relationshipsbetween the various subjects may be stored in a RELATIONSHIPS table 156.In the example provided, each record in the RELATIONSHIPS table 156defines a relationship between two subjects. For example, the subject“INTERNATIONAL NEWS” may be related to the subject “SOUTH AMERICA NEWS”as a “PARENT” relationship indicating that “SOUTH AMERICA NEWS”comprises a subset of “INTERNATIONAL NEWS”. Defining these types ofrelationships allow for a user to drill down through the taxonomy tofurther narrow their subject matter of interest within the system 101.

Also included in the database scheme is a TERMS table 158. Each recordstored in the TERMS table 158 represents a term which is converted to ahypertext link when it appears in the content of a page generated by thepublishing module 112. Each term record includes a unique identifierfield TERM_ID which is a value unique to that term. The TERM record alsoincludes a TERM field which stores the text of the term itself. Termrecords also include fields for storing other data related to the term.For example, the TERMS table 158 includes various additional data fieldsin which synonyms, disambiguators, and other related words and phrasesmay be stored to provide an indication of the context in which a termmay be utilized. A disambiguator is a word or phrase which is likely toappear with the term depending on its context. For example, the term“Eagles” may have various meanings such as “Eagles” the football team,“Eagles” the rock band, or “Eagles” the bird itself. When used in thecontext of a football team, it is likely that the word “football” willappear in the same content as the term “Eagles”. Similarly, if the term“Eagles” is used to reference the rock band, it may be likely to appearnear the word “music”. Thus, these words may be added to the term recordas disambiguators which help the system to determine the context of aparticular usage of the term (as is discussed in detail below inconnection with FIG. 11A-11C). In addition, a data field may also beprovide which includes URLs for data that is relevant to the term. TheURLs may point to HTML pages, image files, videos, or some other typesof data.

FIG. 1D provides a more detailed view of various sub-modules that mayform portions of the content gateway 106. The content gateway 106 may beconfigured to process RSS feeds, ATOM feeds, and/or some other type ofweb feed. In one embodiment, the content gateway 106 may include a RSSfeeder 164 which is configured to receive syndicated network content andpass it to a rendering module 165. The rendering module 165 isconfigured to take the syndicated content and format it for display onthe computing devices 128. The content gateway 106 may further includean index builder 166. The index builder 166 is configured to generate anindex of the content made available to the content gateway 106 via theWAN 102 and the proprietary content 104. The content gateway 106 mayfurther include an access control component 167. The access controlcomponent 167 provides application level control of access and loggingto the data made available to the content gateway 106. In someembodiments, the access control component 167 is used to restrict thepublishing module's 112 access to content based on contractualagreements with content providers.

The content gateway 106 may further include a query routing module 168.The query routing module 168 is typically configured to receive queryrequest from the client computers 128 and route the query to severalparallel systems and content sources (in the WAN 102 and the proprietarycontent 104) simultaneously. This allows a single query request to bemanaged by the content gateway 106 to request and retrieve data frommany different sources in a manner that is transparent to the user. Theresults received from the various queried content sources may be thencompiled into a single results set by a results aggregator 169. Theresults set is then provided to the publishing module 112 where it isformatted appropriately and returned to the requesting client computer128. In addition, the data returned to the content gateway 106 inresponse to queries sent by the query routing module 168 may bereformatted by the renderer 165 into a display format to suit thecapabilities of the client computer 128 making the request. Thesedisplay formats may include XML, SXML, RSS, ATOM, JSON, CSV, or someother format.

The various modules shown in FIGS. 1A-1D may be implemented asexecutable code modules that run on one or more general purposecomputers or processors, including computers or processors that aregeographically remote from each other. The executable code modules maybe stored on any type of computer-readable medium or computer storagedevice.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an example of how the database 134 in thetaxonomy module 122 may be indexed for quick search capability isprovided. As shown in the figure, the database 134 of the taxonomymodule 122 may include one or more groups 202. As noted above, thegroups 202 may be related to certain topics or categories of data. Forexample, one group such as group 202(A) may represent “News”, whileanother group 202(B) may represent “Music”. Other groups 202 may include“Sports” 202(C), “Showbiz” 202(D), “Business” 202(E). Other groups 202may also be included in the taxonomy module 112. Each group 202 may havean associated set of terms 204. For example, the “News” group 202(A) mayhave a set of terms 204(A) which include keywords and concepts which arerelated to the news and deemed meaningful enough that a user may wish toaccess content specifically related to the keyword or concept.Similarly, other groups may also have associated sets of terms 204. Forexample, the “Sports” group 202(C) may include a set of terms whichcomprises meaningful concepts related to sports. The sets of terms 204may be managed by a content management module. There may be hundreds ofthousands, or even millions of search terms stored in the taxonomymodule 122. In some embodiments, users of the computing devices 128which access the dynamically generated content may suggest terms (e.g.,specific words or phrases) to be added to one or more of the sets ofterms 204 in the taxonomy module 112. As new terms, relationships,synonyms, and abbreviations are identified, the overall taxonomy maycontinuously evolve to include these identified items. The most popularterms, newest terms, and other useful sets of terms may be presented tothe user in the form of “tag-clouds”. A tag cloud is any visualrepresentation of related words, which provides visual cues to therelative rank and popularity of the related words.

The HTTP service 118 in the dynamic content generation system 101delivers web pages to the computing devices 128. As noted above, thepages delivered by the HTTP service may be dynamically generated fromRSS content and/or other dynamic content which is received and processedby the content gateway 106 and further processed by the publishingmodule 112 into a delivery package which is simple to navigate usingdevices 128 having limited pixel space and/or keyboarding capability.

FIGS. 3-8 generally provide an illustration of how the dynamic contentgeneration system 101 delivers page data to computing devices 128. Inthe particular embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 3-8, thecomputing device is a limited form-factor handheld computing device 128.With particular reference to FIG. 3, an example of an entry page 300 forthe dynamic content generation system 101 is provided. The entry page300 includes hyperlinks associated which each of the groups 202. In theexample provided, the groups include “News”, “Music”, “Sports”,“Showbiz”, “Money”, and “Missing Kids.” Each group 202 represented inthe entry page 300 has four associated hyperlinks or buttons whichserves as entry points into the system browsing experience. The firstbutton for each group 202 is a channel button 302. The channel button302 may provide a link to dynamically generated page content provided bya data source such as a syndication gateway or RSS feed. Selecting oneof the channel buttons 302 sends a browser request for a web page havinginformation generally related its associated group 202. For example, inresponse to a user selecting the “Music” channel the system 101 mayquery the syndicated content in the content gateway 106 for contentrelated to music. This initial query can be implemented, for example, byquerying on the term “music” or alternatively on one or more manually orautomatically generated terms that are configured to produce resultsrelated to the topic of music. The content received as the query resultis then processed by the filter module 114 and the enhancement module116 and delivered back to the requesting device 128. When the userselects the channel button 302 for the news group 202, a request isgenerated within the system 101 and passed to the content gateway 106.The content gateway 106 retrieves the requested data using the RSSreader 108 and formats it for display using the rendering module 110.The formatted page data is delivered to the publishing module 112 andsent to the computing device 128 by the HTTP service 118. Similarly, auser may select a RSS button 304 which delivers RSS content, the photobutton 306 which delivers image content, and the blog button 308 whichdelivers blog related content in response to the user's request. In eachcase, these data sources, document formats, and content types haverelevant filters, and enhancements appropriate to that data. Althoughthese are specific examples of subsets of available data, it will beappreciated that other subsets of available data may be added to theinterface as these subsets become available.

Moving now to FIG. 4, an example is provided which shows a page which isreturned to the computing device 128 when a user selects the channelbutton 302 for the “News” group 202 in FIG. 3. Because the page returnedto the computing device 128 extends beyond the vertical length of thedevice display, two separate screen shots are provided in FIG. 4 to showthe different types of content that may be included in the returned webpage. The displayed content in FIG. 4 provides an indication of theresults type 400. In the example provided in FIG. 4, the user hasselected the channel button for the “News” group. As a result, theresult type 400 is “related to:News.” As noted above the RSS readeraggregates content from various sources both over the Internet 102 andwithin the proprietary content 104 into a single page of results todeliver to the user. The aggregated content may include images such asimage 402 with an associated caption 403 or story headline. Alsoincluded in the generated page may be news headlines 406 which alsoserve as hypertext links to the associated article. An example of thesenews headlines 406 and associated hyperlinks is provided in the rightside display shown in FIG. 4. The images 402 (which are typicallydelivered as thumbnail images) may be hyperlinked. A user may select anyof the images 402 or links 403. If the user wishes to read the entirenews story behind the headline 406, they may select the headline (whichis also a hypertext link) in order to read the entire news article.

Because the news articles are aggregated from different sources,selection of a news article link may require the content gateway 106 (orsome other component of the system 101) to download the entire newsarticle page from its syndication source. However, the syndicationsource may be a website which does not publish content for mobiledevices. Thus, if the page is delivered to the handheld device 128, itmay not display properly due to limitations in devices ability to handlemore complex and rich HTML or XHTML, as well as the inclusion ofunsupported enhancements, such as FLASH. To prevent the returned pagefrom displaying incorrectly, the filter module 114 filters the web pageappropriately and the enhancement module 116 adds hyperlinks to allterms in the web page which are in the set of terms 204 for the group202. Once the filtering and enhancement is completed, the page is thendelivered to the device 128. (This process is discussed in furtherdetail below in connection with FIGS. 10 and 12 below.)

FIG. 5A shows the display on the computing device 128 after the user hasselected the headline 406 from FIG. 4 and the page has been filtered andenhanced. As shown in the figure, the image file associated with thenews article has been reduced for improved display on the mobile device.Moreover, various terms 204 in the news article have been converted intohyperlinks 502 because the enhancement module 116 located the terms inthe set of terms 204 relevant to the “News” group. The hypertext links502 are highlighted by the upward/diagonal arrow set beside them.Clicking on any of the hyperlinks 502 may result in the system 101performing a search for data related to the term associated withhyperlink (as will be discussed below). In some embodiments, the cachingmodule 124 may have already performed the search in advance. In thespecific example of FIG. 5A, the terms “NBC”, “CBS”, “ABC”, and “BrianWilliams” have been converted into hypertext links 204 by theenhancement module 118. Moreover, hyperlinks in the original contentwhich link to external websites may have been removed from the displayedcontent by the filtering module 114. FIG. 5B shows an example of anunfiltered, unenhanced version of the web page shown in FIG. 5A. In theunadulterated version of the web page, the image file is considerablelarger and none of the terms 204 from FIG. 5A are hypertext links.Moreover, much of the extraneous content such as advertisements andother rich media content has been removed.

Each of the hyperlinks 502 from FIG. 5A provides the user with anopportunity to access content related to the term 204 associated witheach hyperlink 502. FIG. 6 provides an illustration of content which isprovided to the mobile device 128 in response to the user selecting thehyperlink 502 “Brian Williams” from FIG. 5A. As shown in FIG. 6, a listof news headlines 406 related to “Brian Williams” is displayed to theuser. The results type 400 indicates that the search results relate to“Brian Williams.” Each of the news headlines 406 is also a hyperlink toa news story. If the user selects one of the headline hypertext links406, the associated news story is then displayed in the same manner thatthe news story was displayed in FIG. 5A.

In certain embodiments, the content generation system 101 may beconfigured to provide a “self-contained” browsing experience to theuser. A self-contained browsing experience is one in which all of thelinked pages are within the same web site, although at least some of thecontent being viewed is extracted from other web sites. This type ofbrowsing experience may be advantageous because it keeps users withinthe web domain of the system 101 and improves the level of userengagement, thereby increasing traffic within the site. Increasedtraffic may provide increased revenue to the service provider. Inproviding a self-contained browsing experience, the filter 114 of thepublishing module 112 may optionally remove links to external websitesso that all page links remain within the web domain. In someembodiments, the web links may be selectively removed, while in otherembodiments, all external web links are filtered.

FIG. 7 provides an illustration of the how a self-contained browsingexperience may be implemented by the dynamic content generation system.FIG. 7 shows an example of a news article linked to by one of the newsheadlines from FIG. 6. As with the news article from FIG. 5, certainterms in the article have been converted to hypertext links based ontheir presence in the set of terms 204 for group 202 in the taxonomymodule 122. In this example, the domain of the website providing theservice to the user is “pocketbrowse.com”. Each hypertext link providedin the news story includes the “pocketbrowse.com” domain followed by aHTTP query string. Selection of any of the hyperlinks in FIG. 7generates a query similar to the query generated when one of the channelbuttons, utilities, or RSS buttons from FIG. 3 is selected.

In some embodiments, the sets of terms 204 for the groups 202 may befurther categorized to provide specialized types of hypertext links. Forexample, if a term associated with a group relates to a company name,the generated hyperlink call a page which links to the company'sfinancial data. FIG. 8A provides an illustration of a specialized typeof hyperlink. In this example, the user has selected the hypertext linkfor the term “NBC” from FIG. 7. Because “NBC” is a subsidiary of“General Electric”, the taxonomy module 122 is configured to associateNBC with General Electric. Referring back to FIG. 7, the associatedhypertext link for “NBC” includes a different destination page and adifferent query string. This PHP script and query string retrieves astock quote and company information for the ticker system GE anddisplays it on the mobile device 128 as shown in FIG. 8.

In other embodiments, different types of specialized hyperlinks may becreated. For example, when a city name is among the set of terms 204 fora group 202, the associated hyperlink 506 direct the browser on thedevice 128 to a weather, maps, and/or traffic page or any otherlocalized content (such as gas prices or movie theater locations)associated with that particular city.

As noted above, certain aspects of the system 101 provide the abilityfor users of the client computer 128 to request that certain terms beadded to the taxonomy database 134. FIGS. 8B and 8C are two example ofuser interfaces or requesting additional of a taxonomy term areprovided. FIG. 8B shows a user interface on the client device 128. Theuser interface is displaying a news story. The term “Darfur” has beenhighlighted by the user. In response to the highlighting of the term, acontrol 810 is presented to the user which asks whether the highlightedterm/topic should be added to the database. If the user selects “OK”812, then a request is sent to the system to add the term to thetaxonomy.

In some embodiments, the term may be automatically added to the database134. In these embodiments, a primacy model allowing varying degrees ofconfidence in added terms may be utilized to police inappropriatesubmissions. For example, a term that has been added by administrativeusers of the system may have a high confidence ranking because itssource can be easily verified. However, to ensure that inappropriateterms are not added and then displayed to other users, a term added tothe database 134 via the interface shown in FIG. 8B may be given a lowconfidence ranking initially. Once the added term has been reviewed bythe site administrators, its confidence ranking may be adjustedaccordingly. In other embodiments, the user submission of a term is onlya request, and the term is not added automatically to the database. Inthese embodiments, the administrative users of the taxonomy module 122may review the request independently, and determine whether it should beadded to the taxonomy.

Referring now to FIG. 8C, an alternative user interface on a clientdevice 128 for providing a user the ability to request addition of aterm to the taxonomy database 134 is provided. As shown in the figure,the first screen shot (on the left side) includes a checkbox control 820which may be selected by the user. If the user selects the checkboxcontrol 820, a second screen is displayed which allows for the input ofa requested topic 822. Once the requested topic 822 has been input, theuser may then select the “Submit” button 824. This selection sends therequest to the system 101. Upon submission of the request, theconfirmation notice 830 may be then presented to the user which confirmsthat their request has been received into the system. In still otherembodiments, a control may be provided to a user which is adrag-and-drop control that enables the user to drag and drop a term to aparticular display area which to cause the term to be submitted fornomination.

As discussed above, the dynamic content generation system 101 isconfigured to retrieve data from external sources and modify the data tobe served via HTTP to client devices such as computer device 128. FIGS.9-13 provide illustrative flowcharts describing various aspects of thepage generation process.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart describing various aspects of a user requestwhich occurs as a result of the selection of a channel button 302 or ofany hypertext link. The process begins at block 902 where the userclicks the channel button hyperlink for one of the groups 202 or ahypertext link corresponding to one of the displayed terms 204. Inresponse to the request, at block 904 the system 101 retrieves therequested page data from the content gateway 106. Next, at block 906,the retrieved data is passed to the publishing module 112 where thefiltering module 114 removes those page elements which are not desired.As noted above, rich formatting and other types of advanced content maybe filtered from the page content. Next, at block 908 the enhancementmodule 116 scans the filtered content for terms which are in set ofterms 204 for the group 202 of the content. This enhancement module mayidentify the presence of terms 204 utilizing known search and matchingmethods. At block 910, the enhancement module converts each of theidentified terms 204 into a hypertext link. Once the enhancement of thepage is complete, the process moves to block 912, where the HTTP service118 constructs the page including all of the modifications. Finally, atblock 914, the constructed page is delivered to the client device 128.Upon the user selecting one of the hypertext links in the constructedpage, the process returns to block 902.

As noted above, in some embodiments, the filtering module 114 may modifyimage content to be better displayed on small form-factor devices. FIG.10 is a flowchart of one exemplary process for performing suchmodifications. The process begins at block 1002 where the filteringmodule 114 scans the page content and identifies an image included inthe page based on the presence of image tags. Next, at block 1004, thefiltering module retrieves the image from its original location (i.e.from the IMG_SRC). At block 1006, the filtering module 114 stores theimage in a memory (on the HTTP server, for example), and a compressionalgorithm is applied to the image in block 1008. Next, at block 1010,the compressed image file is stored in a data storage area of the system101 (or in a remote storage location accessible to the system 101). Oncethe compressed image has been stored, the page content is modified torefer to the URL of the compressed image rather than the source image atblock 1012.

FIG. 11A is a flowchart describing how the enhancement module 116utilizes the data from the taxonomy module 122 to create hypertext linksto place within the requested page content. The process begins at block1102 where the enhancement module reads into memory the next term in thecontent to the displayed. Next, at block 1104, the term in memory iscompared to the set of terms 204 for the current group 200. Next, atdecision block 1106, if the term is not found, the process returns toblock 802 and the next term is scanned. If, however, the term is foundwithin the set of terms 204 of the taxonomy module 122, a hyperlink iscreated for the term at block 1108. The hyperlink may include a querystring having the term as a search parameter.

As noted above, terms stored in the taxonomy database 134 may haveassociated metadata which includes associated subject(s) and group for aparticular term. Additionally, a term stored in the taxonomy database134 may include disambiguators and/or alternative terms and phraseswhich may help to better define the entity referenced by the term. Insome embodiments, this associated metadata may be used to refinesearches based on the term so that the results are more relevant andaccurate within the particular context in which the term appears. Inparticular, the metadata associated with the term may be used to furtherrefine the search parameter embedded into the URL hyperlink. In oneembodiment, the search parameter may be supplemented to include adisambiguator associated with the term. For example, consider the term“Eagles”. As noted above, depending on the context, the term may havevarious meanings (e.g., a rock band, a bird, a football team). If theterm appears in page content generated from the “Sports” group, it islikely that the use of the term in the page content is directed to thefootball team. However, if the term appears under the “News” category,it is possible that it could take any of the various meanings describedabove. For example, the content may be a news article on the Eaglesband. Similarly, the content may be a news article on the Eaglesfootball team, or about the bird itself. In these instances, the termmetadata stored in the taxonomy database 134 may be used to determinethe proper context for the search that occurs when a user selects thehypertext link.

Referring now to FIG. 11B, a flowchart of an exemplary process fordetermining the context of the term and creating the appropriateresultant query string for the term record as shown in FIG. 11C isprovided. The process begins at block 1120 where the term (in this case“Eagles”) is found in the page content. Next at block 1122, the term“Eagles” is compared to the index of terms 204 for the group 202associated with the page content. At decision step 1124, if the termwere not found in the taxonomy, the process would return to block 1120to begin the process anew. If, however, the term is found in thetaxonomy database 134, the process moves to block 1126 where the termrecord is looked at to determine whether the term has any associateddisambiguators. As discussed above, the disambiguators may be words thatwould be likely to appear with the term in a given context. If not, theprocess jumps to block 1134, where a hyperlink is created based only onthe term itself.

The system scans the page content then checks to see if the term recordin the database 134 includes any disambiguators. In the example providedby FIG. 11C, the term “Eagles” has three disambiguators: “Music”;“Football”; and “bird”. As a result, the process moves to block 1128where the page content is scanned for occurrences of any of thedisambiguators. Next at decision block 1130, if one or more of thedisambiguators is found in the page content, the system creates ahyperlink to embed in page content at block 1132. The hyperlink createdat block 1132 includes the disambiguator in its associated query string.If none of the disambiguators is found within the content, then theprocess moves to block 1134 where the standard hypertext link isgenerated for the term.

To further illustrate how the process shown in FIG. 1B might work,consider an example in which the term “Football” is also found in thepage content at block 1130. In that instance, the hypertext linkgenerated may include a query string “Eagles+football” rather thansimply “Eagles”. The more detailed query string will help to eliminateresults which are not relevant to the context in which the term appearsin the page.

Referring now to FIG. 12, a flow diagram of the filtering processdescribed in FIGS. 5A and 5B is provided. The process begins at block1202, where the filtering module 114 determines which page elements tobe filtered from the page in memory. The filtering module may determinethis based on the form-factor of the requesting device, the browserconfiguration of the device, or it may be hard coded into the filteringmodule 114. Next, at block 1204, the filtering module 114 scans the pagecontent for the page elements to be filtered. The process then moves todecision block 1206 where the system 101 determines whether the pageelements are present in the page content. If so, the process moves toblock 908 where the content is modified by removing the selectedelements from the page content. If at decision block 906 no pageelements are found, the process moves to block 910 and the page contentis modified.

FIG. 13 provides a flowchart of a process by which a page may bedynamically generated from selecting a hyperlink 502 which represents aterm 204 (such as that shown in FIG. 5A). The process begins at block1302 where the user requests a page via a taxonomic term 204 hyperlinkas shown in FIG. 5A and FIG. 7. Next, the term 204 is sent to a searchengine at block 1304 using a query string such as those shown in FIG. 7.Next, at block 1306, the results are received from the search, andformatted for display on the device 128 at block 1308. Once the resultshave been properly formatted, the page may be delivered to therequesting device 128.

In one particular embodiment, a search based on a term in the taxonomyis limited based on its associated GROUP_ID in order to achieve the mostrelevant results.

As another example, the system may log each link selection event inwhich a user selects a term that has been transformed into a link. Thesystem may also log associated link impression events, such that thesystem can calculate the click-through rate for each term. Terms withlow click-through rates, or which lead to discontinued use of thesystem, may automatically be removed from the taxonomy. In some cases,if a term has a low click-through rate, it may be indicative of somedefect in the taxonomy. For example, the term may be misspelled ormiscategorized. In some embodiments, taxonomy administrators may bealerted to these low-traffic links so that they may be considered formodification or removal from the database 134. FIG. 14 provides anexample flowchart of a process by which low-traffic links may beaddressed.

The process begins at block 1400 where the system 101 identifies thelow-traffic links. This identification may be provided by commercial webstatistics tracking software, or by some custom made software whichanalyzes the HTTP server 118 logs. Next, at block 1402 the termassociated with the link may be checked for errors. These errors mayinclude spelling errors in the record data, improper placement withinthe taxonomy, or some other error. The error checking may be automated(by an automated spell checker, for example), or it may be done by ahuman editor. Next at decision block 1404, if an error was found in thetaxonomy, the process moves to block 1408 and no changes are made. If,however, an error is identified, the process moves to block 1406 wherethe error is corrected in the taxonomy database 134.

The disclosed system may further include one or more features forautomatically refining the taxonomy over time, and/or for collectingdata that is useful to administrators in refining the taxonomy. As oneexample, the system may continually analyze RSS fees, news sites, blogs,social networking sites, and/or content sources to identify terms andtopics that are rapidly gaining (or falling) in popularity. Thisinformation may in turn be used to automatically or manually add andremove terms and/or topics in the taxonomy. FIG. 15 provides an exampleof how the taxonomy may be automatically refined based on the popularityof terms. The process begins at block 1500 where in the systemidentifies a terms as appearing with unusual frequency. Like with theprocess described in connection with FIG. 14, this functionality may beprovided by off the shelf web statistics software or by customizedsoftware. Once a frequently appearing term is identified, it is checkedagainst the taxonomy at decision step 1502. If found in the taxonomy,the term record is reviewed for accuracy at block 1504. If the term isnot already stored in the taxonomy database 134, it is then added atblock 1506. In some embodiments, the system may be further configured toanalyze the surrounding page content for a term appearing with unusualfrequency in the accessed content. If certain related words appear withthe same frequency, they may be added to the term record asdisambiguators.

It will be understood by those of skill in the art that numerous andvarious modifications can be made without departing from the spirit ofthe present invention. Therefore, it should be clearly understood thatthe forms of the invention are illustrative only and are not intended tolimit the scope of the invention.

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: generating a first webpage containing textual content that is responsive to a request from auser computing device, wherein generating the first web page comprisesscanning the textual content for each of a plurality of terms, and inresponse to detecting an occurrence of a first term of said plurality ofterms, transforming the occurrence of the first term into a firsthyperlink; transmitting the first web page to the user computing devicefor display to a user; generating a second web page which is responsiveto the first hyperlink, wherein generating the second web page comprises(a) using the first term to execute a keyword search, (b) aggregating aplurality of content items located by the keyword search, (c) scanningthe plurality of content items for occurrences of individual terms ofsaid plurality of terms, and (d) transforming occurrences of individualterms of said plurality of terms into respective hyperlinks; andtransmitting the second web page to the user computing device inresponse to user selection of the first hyperlink on the first web page.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating the second webpage is performed in response to user selection of the first hyperlink.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating the second webpage is performed prior to the user's selection of the first hyperlink,and is stored in a cache.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the methodis performed by a server system that hosts a first web site, and whereingenerating the second web page comprises removing, from the aggregatedplurality of content items, hyperlinks that point to web sites otherthan said first web site.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein transformingoccurrences of individual terms of said plurality of terms intorespective hyperlinks comprises creating links that point to said firstweb site.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the respective hyperlinkscomprise respective HTTP query strings.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein the respective query strings include the respective occurrencesof individual terms of said plurality of terms.
 8. The method of claim7, wherein the respective query strings further include at least onedisambiguator.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of termscomprises a set of terms stored in a taxonomy database.
 10. The methodof claim 9, wherein the set of terms are associated with a group. 11.The method of claim 1, wherein aggregating the plurality of contentitems comprises aggregating web content extracted from a plurality ofweb sites, and wherein the method further comprises extractingpredefined types of content elements from said web content to facilitatedisplay of the second web page on a screen of a handheld device.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, wherein extracting predefined types of contentelements comprises extracting at least one of the following types ofcontent elements: IFRAMES, EMBED objects, FLASH content, rich mediaadvertisements, tables, JavaScript, HTML forms, DHTML, AJAX.
 13. Themethod of claim 11, wherein extracting predefined types of contentelements comprises extracting at least the following types of contentelements: IFRAMES, EMBED objects, FLASH content, rich mediaadvertisements, tables, JavaScript, HTML forms, DHTML, AJAX.
 14. Themethod of claim 1, wherein generating the second web page comprisesselecting, from a search result set of said keyword search, a mosthighly ranked subset of content items to include in the second web page.15. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the keyword searchcomprises executing a search that encompasses a plurality of Internetdomains, such that the second web page comprises content extracted fromeach of multiple independent web sites.
 16. The method of claim 15,wherein executing the keyword search that encompasses a plurality ofInternet domains comprises providing the keyword to a query routingmodule.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the query routing module isconfigured to route the keyword search to a plurality of systems andcontent sources in parallel.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein theplurality of terms are represented in a taxonomy in which specific termsare associated with specific topics, and wherein generating the secondweb page comprises executing a topic-specific keyword search which issubstantially limited in scope to a topic associated with the firstterm.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first term is associatedwith a plurality of topics in the taxonomy, and the method comprisesselecting, from said plurality of topics, a particular topic to which tolimit said keyword search.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein theparticular topic is selected based, at least in part, on a context inwhich the first term appears in said textual content.
 21. The method ofclaim 18, further comprising automatically refining the taxonomy overtime based on monitored user actions of a plurality of users, saidactions reflective of which terms are most useful to users.
 22. Themethod of claim 18, further comprising providing, on said second webpage, at least one control for enabling the user to nominate a term toadd to the taxonomy.
 23. The method of claim 22, wherein the control isa drag-and-drop control that enables the user to drag and drop a termappearing on the second web page to a particular display area to causethe term to be submitted for nomination.
 24. A computer systemconfigured to perform a method, the method comprising: generating afirst web page containing textual content that is responsive to arequest from a user computing device, wherein generating the first webpage comprises scanning the textual content for each of a plurality ofterms, and in response to detecting an occurrence of a first term ofsaid plurality of terms, transforming the occurrence of the first terminto a first hyperlink; transmitting the first web page to the usercomputing device for display to a user; generating a second web pagewhich is responsive to the first hyperlink, wherein generating thesecond web page comprises (a) using the first term to execute a keywordsearch, (b) aggregating a plurality of content items located by thekeyword search, (c) scanning the plurality of content items foroccurrences of individual terms of said plurality of terms, and (d)transforming occurrences of individual terms of said plurality of termsinto respective hyperlinks; and transmitting the second web page to theuser computing device in response to user selection of the firsthyperlink on the first web page.
 25. A system for providing dynamicgeneration of network content, comprising: at least one processor; afirst module, executing on the at least one processor, configured to:determine that a term in a web page is present in a database of terms;convert the term into a hypertext link in the web page; receive a userrequest to access the hypertext link; and generate a search requestbased on the hypertext link; a second module configured to: receive thegenerated search request; determine a plurality of external sources toreceive the search request; and send the search request to each of theexternal sources in parallel.
 26. The system of claim 25, wherein thesecond module is further configured to receive a response to the searchrequest from each of the external sources and aggregate the receivedresponses into a single web page.
 27. The system of claim 26, whereinthe second module is further configured to send the single web page tothe first module.
 28. The system of claim 27, wherein the first moduleis further configured to extract predefined types of content elementsfrom said web content to facilitate display of the single web page on ascreen of a handheld device.
 29. A method of dynamically generating webpages, the method comprising: automatically determining that a firstobject displayable on a first web page matches a first predefined objectin a set of objects of interest; in response to the determining,automatically establishing the first object as a first hypertext link onthe first web page; and in response to selection of the first hypertextlink by a user, displaying a second web page to the user, wherein thesecond web page is generated by at least: accessing results of a searchfor web-accessible content based on the first predefined object;aggregating portions of one or more results of the search into thesecond web page; and additionally determining that a second objectdisplayable on the second web page matches a second pre-defined objectin the set of objects of interest; and in response to the additionallydetermining, establishing the second object as a second hypertext linkon the second web page.
 30. A computer-implemented method, comprising:generating a first web page with text, the first web page responsive toa request from a client, wherein generating the first web page comprisesscanning the text for individual terms, and in response to detecting afirst of the terms, transforming the first term into a first hyperlink,wherein the terms are represented in a taxonomy associating the termswith topics; sending the first web page to the user computing device fordisplay; generating a second web page that is responsive to the firsthyperlink, wherein generating the second web page comprises (a) usingthe first term to execute a topic-specific keyword search directed to atopic associated with the first term, (b) aggregating content itemsidentified by the keyword search, (c) scanning the content items foroccurrences of the terms, and (d) changing occurrences of the terms intohyperlinks; providing, on the second web page, a control enabling theuser to nominate a new term from the second web page to add to thetaxonomy, wherein the control is a drag-and-drop control that enablesthe new term to be dragged and dropped to a particular display area tocause the new term to be submitted for nomination; and transmitting thesecond web page to the user computing device in response to a selectionof the first hyperlink on the first web page.
 31. The method of claim30, wherein using the first term to execute the topic-specific keywordsearch comprises searching Internet domains, such that the second webpage comprises content extracted from multiple independent web sites.32. The method of claim 31, wherein searching Internet domains comprisesproviding the keyword search to a query routing module, the queryrouting module configured to route the keyword search to content sourcesin parallel.